arms laden, toward the house.

They found their way back to the kitchen again and dropped the things
thankfully on the table.

"Now for something to eat!" cried Laura. "What shall we have, Mrs.
Gilligan? I suppose it will have to be a cold supper," she added,
looking about for some means of cooking and discovering only an immense
coal stove.

"I suppose it would take forever to make a fire in that," said Billie,
indicating the stove and thinking longingly of hot steak and potatoes,
"even if they have any coal."

"Here's plenty of coal," said Mrs. Gilligan, who had been finding things
out in her own practical and efficient way, "and here is plenty of wood
and old newspapers to start it going. Indeed and we're not going to have
any cold supper," she added, while in imagination the girls already were
sniffing the aroma of broiling steak. "Not after that long ride an'
cheerful conversation!"

With the prospect of supper, and a hot supper, so close at hand, the
girls could laugh at the gloomy stories of the old driver.

"We'll help," cried Laura. "Come on, girls, let's see if we can find
enough dishes to set the table."

So they went gayly to work, setting the table and peeling potatoes, which
Mrs. Gilligan proceeded to fry, and enjoyed themselves immensely.

"Shall we eat in the kitchen?" asked Violet, pausing with a pile of
plates in her hand. "Or shall we be very proper and eat in the
dining-room?"

"Oh, the kitchen's a lot more cheerful," said Billie, shivering a little
in spite of herself as she thought of the dark, rather dreary room just
the other side of the door.

"Besides, what we want we want in a hurry," said Laura, taking the dishes
from Violet and setting them decidedly on the table. "To-morrow will be
time enough to put on airs. Just now all I want to do is to eat!"

While they were waiting for the supper to cook and after they had done as
much as they could toward its preparation, the girls looked about the
kitchen and the gloomy dining room a bit. The latter room was dark and
cheerless, and they wondered that any one should have selected it for a
dining room. The woodwork was all of black walnut, and there was much of
it, the window frames and door frames being heavy and ornate and the room
being wainscoted with the same dark wood. The room was large, too, and
there were windows at one end only, and that toward the north.

"Oh, come! let us get out of here," finally cried Laura, grabbing each